Bonsai is a Japanese art using miniature trees grown in containers, similar in some ways to the Chinese art of penjing and the Vietnamese art of hòn non bô. The Japanese tradition of bonsai cultivation contains many specialized terms and techniques for creating bonsai and enhancing the illusion of age and the portrayal of austerity [1] that marks a successful bonsai. Some of these methods are the deadwood techniques, which create, shape, and preserve dead wood on a living bonsai. Similar methods may exist in other traditions, but this article deals with the traditional deadwood terminology and techniques used in the Japanese practice of bonsai.
Deadwood techniques are used for reasons both practical and aesthetic. Practically, collected specimens of aged trees often have dead wood present. Dead wood can also appear on a bonsai under cultivation for many reasons, including branch die-back, pest infestation, or disease. It can be partially or completely removed by the bonsai artist, but doing so may damage the tree's overall shape or the illusion of age. If dead wood is retained, however, it must be chemically treated to preserve it and to produce the coloration of weathered wood. In addition, the dead wood usually needs to be shaped to fit the aesthetic plan for the bonsai.
Usually, deadwood techniques for branches are applied to conifers. Deciduous trees tend to shed dead branches and heal over the wound, while conifers often retain the dead limb, which naturally becomes weathered and eroded over time. Most deadwood techniques for the tree's trunk apply equally well to deciduous and to conifer bonsai, although the driftwood style (in which much of the trunk is dead) is generally restricted to conifers.
Jin (人) is a bonsai deadwood technique used on branches or the top of the trunk (the leader ).[2] A jin is meant to show age, or show that the tree has had a struggle to survive. Jins are created in nature when wind, lightning, or or other adversity kills the leader or a branch further down the tree.[3] A jin requires the complete removal of bark from a given start point to the end of the branch or leader. The remaining wood dies and dries out to form the jin.[4]
